Merry Christmas 2009!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Christmas morning at our house of course, was so fun! Santa filled all of our stockings.

Colton found many fun things in his stocking....among them was Leapfrog games.

Sleepy eyed and bed-headed Colton and Livy in front of the tree. I love little kiddos when they first wake up, I just want to kiss them!

Opening presents.....this year the presents from mom and dad were under the Christmas Tree upstairs........

.......And the presents from Santa were under the "kid" tree downstairs.

Olivia is getting ready to open her "Big" gift from Santa Claus.

Santa brought Olivia a KITCHEN......complete with pots and pans and a fridge full of food. :)

Colton's big gift from Santa was.......A JEEP!!! Just what he asked for.

Livy was way excited about it too!!!!

When we were done with Christmas at our house we headed out to grandma and grandpa Stephens, then to grandma Love's and ended the day at grandpa Kelly's. It was a very busy Christmas day. (Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera..hence no pictures of the rest of the day. :( )

Christmas Eve 2009

The Stephens family has a tradition for every Christmas Eve....We go to Josh's parents house for a yummy prime rib dinner. After dinner there is a Christmas program where each family does something to add to the Christmas spirit. Josh always plays his violin for our family. Other families sing Christmas songs or play other instruments, or read a Christmas story. We read The Night Before Christmas together. We also do a neat activity that Josh's parents started last year, where we pick a name of somebody in the family weeks before, then we write a paragraph or two about that person and what we admire about them. We email these paragraphs to grandma and grandpa so they can read them on Christmas Eve when we are all gathered around and listening. 

After the  program all the grandkids got to open one present each from grandma and grandpa.

Each family got to open a present as well.

Colton got a dinosaur

We love Christmas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa Stephens always make it very fun and special.

After grandma and grandpa's house we went home to open presents at our house.

What a surprise.......Christmas pajamas!!!

Colton and Olivia got in their new p.j.'s and put out milk and cookies for Santa. They also put out carrots for Rudolph, then they were off to bed. They had a big day ahead.

Lights at Temple Square

"Lights on Temple Square" night. Daddy and Colton in the parking lot.....ready to go.

We went with our friends and neighbors the Scheels.

Our friend Mmusi came along as well.

As always there were so many beautiful colored lights and displays.

Kristi and I

Daddy and Colton

The Nativity

Colton's first preschool Christmas program.

Colton standing in front of a Christmas tree in the Draper Theatre, which is where his Christmas singing program was held.

Colton and his buddy Jacob, they are in the same class.

It was a very cute program, they sang many Christmas songs, used many props and instruments. Some of our family that came to watch our cute boy was.......both grandmas, Aunt Jamie and baby Wynter and mom and dad.

Colton's Pirate Birthday Party

Colton Jack wanted a pirate party for his fourth birthday party. I can't believe he is four! Yes he is in a fireman suit in this picture.....he got this as a present.

Little Liv with her eye patch on. 

We played games once Colton's friends arrived. Here we are playing pin the flag on the treasure chest.

The birthday boy!!

Colton's cousin Emrie.

Colton's cousin Owen.

Colton's buddy Jacob.

Next, the kids played a game kind of like musical chairs, but it was called something like "Pirate Islands."

The winners received prizes, which were miniature gum ball machines and other treats.

Present time!!! Grandma Ann helped out.

This was a gun from Colton's buddy Max, it makes shooting sounds.

Among many other fun gifts, Colton got a fireman suit.

Here is the Pirate cake I made for Colton.

We ate pizza and had cake and ice cream.

After cake and ice cream, we headed to the garage for our last fun game........A Treasure Chest pinata.

Colton was soooo in his element.....he loves to swing a bat. I think this was at the very end. Most of the time the kids had a blindfold on while they were trying to hit the pinata.

It was a great Happy Birthday day!! Colton got a new Lightning McQueen bike from mom and dad. It was his very first bike.